November 27, 2018 AT 3:00 am

Clinical Trails for BrainGate: Brain-Computer Interface

Brown University researchers are conducting a trial dubbed BrainGate and have created a brain-computer interface (BCI) that allowed three people who have paralysis to do everyday tasks on smartphones and tablets. The tasks included things like chatting with family and friends, shopping online, and using other tablet functions. These tasks were completed by thinking about what they want to do, and clicking a mouse.

The three participants in the study had tetraplegia, and each of then used the BrainGate BCI that records neural activity via a small sensor that was placed inside the motor cortex of their brains. Using that BCI, each of the participants was able to navigate through commonly used tablet programs like email, chat, music streaming, and video sharing apps.

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